“Are we going to be the subject of government, or are we going to be partner to it?”
“I’m optimistic . . . We see massive sea changes, we see incredible debates happening in parliaments around the world, happening in newspapers, happening in academic institutions. We see the very fabric of the internet being changed, due to new technological implementations that protect peoples privacy, that protect our rights, and that cross borders.”
Snowden receives Swedish ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ via video from Moscow
December 01, 2014
Former U.S. NSA contractor Edward Snowden, is shown on a livestream from Moscow, during the Right Livelihood Award ceremony at the second chamber hall at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm December 1, 2014.(Reuters/Pontus Lundahl)
In his acceptance speech broadcast from Moscow, Snowden said he hoped this was only beginning. The audience in the building of the Swedish parliament received the whistleblower with a long applause.
“I hope despite all we have accomplished in the last year, we all recognize that this is only the beginning,” Snowden said, prompting a standing ovation.
“This is about us, this is about our rights. This is about the kind of societies we want to live in, the kind of government we want to have, the kind of world that we want to make for the next generation. And when we talk about government, we need to think not only about the quality of the government, but also the relationship that we have with it. Are we going to be a subject of government, or will we be partner to it?”
“There is so much more to do…and together we will achieve it,” Snowden concluded.
Snowden shared the award with Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, who gave the green light to publish information based on documents leaked by Snowden.
Although Snowden will not receive the award’s customary 500,000 kronor ($70,000) prize money, the organization said it would “fund legal support for him.”
This year, Sweden’s Foreign Ministry banned the Right Livelihood Award Foundation from making its traditional announcement at the ministry’s Stockholm location — even though prestigious awards have been handed out there for the past 18 years. Because of this, the ceremony had to be held at the Swedish parliament.
US whistleblower Snowden was among five winners of the Swedish human rights award, announced in Stockholm in September.
“The 2014 Right Livelihood Honorary Award goes to Edward Snowden for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights,” the foundation said in a statement.
